Orange County Energy Calcs & Manual J

What Orange reviewers ask for

Orange County's checklist lists energy calculations, ACCA Manuals J, S and D, and the Energy Performance Level display card as required, along with a mechanical duct layout.⁴ Under its mechanical section it asks for a complete duct design with sizes, balanced returns and R-values, consistent with the Manual J loads and a Manual S selection from the manufacturer's data.⁴

The rest of the Orange submittal notes2 more paragraphs

It's strict about matching numbers: the conditioned floor area on the energy calculations must match the square-footage tabulation on the drawings, and that tabulation must include first floor, second floor, garage, living area, porches, breezeways and lanais.⁴

The quirk that catches people on resubmittal: corrected files must be named exactly as in the first submission, or the county says verification fails.⁴ The checklist we read is labeled 7th Edition, so check the county's site for the current form.

Building departments

3 departments · addresses, phones, portals

Winter Park and Apopka run their own building departments, with their own portals.⁵⁶ For Orlando, Ocoee, Winter Garden and the county's other cities, use each city's own building page.

Department	Address	Phone	Portal
Orange County Division of Building Safety (unincorporated)	See official page	407-836-5550	Fast Track online permitting; EPlanRes@ocfl.net for residential e-plans¹
City of Winter Park, Building & Permitting Services	See official page	407-599-3237	Winter Park online permitting⁵
City of Apopka, Building Safety	See official page	407-703-1713	OpenGov⁶

Design conditions

93°F cooling · 42°F heating · zone 2A · weather stations

93°F1% cooling design limit

42°F99% heating design limit

2AClimate zone (FBC-EC 8th Ed.)

18°FCooling ΔT vs 75°F indoor

Cooling station: Orlando Executive Airport (Manual J). Heating station: Orlando International Airport (Manual J).³

Orange's 93°F cooling limit comes from Orlando Executive Airport, and its 42°F heating limit from Orlando International.³ It's zone 2A.² Our reading: 93°F ties Lee for the hottest cooling design in this group outside Duval, but inland air tends to be drier than the coasts, so the same tonnage carries a higher sensible share.

Worked example

2,600 sq ft house → 33,060 Btu/h, 2.76 tons · illustrative

Illustrative · not a Manual J

A 2,600 sq ft four-bedroom two-storey, the newer-subdivision product the county's age data points to.⁹ We used a lower design grains difference than the coastal examples, an assumption reflecting inland air; swap in the Manual J Table 1A value for the station in a real calc.

Inputs (assumed house; design temperatures sourced)
House	new two-storey home, west Orange County subdivision
Conditioned area	2,600 sq ft, 2 storeys, 9 ft ceilings
Bedrooms / occupants	4 / 5
Glazing	14% of floor area (364 sq ft), U 0.32, SHGC 0.25
Walls / ceiling	R-7.8 walls, R-38 ceiling under a vented attic
Air leakage	4.5 ACH50
Ducts	in the attic, 8% gain allowance
Ventilation	mechanical, per FBC formula
Outdoor design	93°F cooling / 42°F heating (sourced above)
Indoor design	75°F cooling / 70°F heating
Design grains difference	35 gr/lb (assumption)

28,460Sensible, Btu/h

4,600Latent, Btu/h

33,060Total cooling, Btu/h

2.76Tons (total ÷ 12,000)

0.86Sensible heat ratio

19,750Heating, Btu/h

Illustrative only. A simplified block-load estimate with the inputs shown, not an ACCA Manual J, and not for permitting. A real calc goes room by room with your plans, orientation and equipment data. Code ceiling for single-stage cooling at 1.15× total load: 38,020 Btu/h.¹⁰

Local housing

Median year built 1996 · 53.8% single-family detached · Census ACS

1996Median year built

53.8%Single-family detached

23.4%Built before 1980

42.7%Built 2000 or later

5.4Median rooms

90.7%Electric heat

The median Orange home was built in 1996, and 42.7% of units went up in 2000 or later.⁹ Single-family detached is 53.8% of 607,220 units, and owner occupancy is 55.2%.⁹

Utility rebates

OUC · Duke Energy Florida

OUC. OUC pays $45 to $1,150 as a bill credit for qualifying heat-pump A/C systems rated 15.2 SEER2 or higher.⁷
Duke Energy Florida. In Duke territory, HVAC rebates run up to $1,000 ($300 A/C, $500 heat pump) after a Home Energy Check within the past 24 months, with a licensed contractor and a permit.⁸

Utility programs change often; check the program page before you count on a rebate.

Orange County questions

3 answers · Does Orange County need Manual S and D, or just Manual J?

Does Orange County need Manual S and D, or just Manual J?

All three. Orange County's residential plan-review checklist lists energy calculations, ACCA Manuals J, S and D and the Energy Performance Level display card as required, plus a mechanical duct layout. The mechanical section asks for a complete duct design with sizes, balanced returns and R-values that follow the Manual J and S results.

Why did my Orange County resubmittal fail verification?

One common cause: the file names changed. Orange County's checklist says corrected plans must be named exactly as they were in the first submission, or verification fails. Keep a copy of the original file names, including the energy calc PDF, and reuse them every time you upload a correction.

What's the EPL display card?

The Energy Performance Level display card summarizes a home's energy features and goes with the energy calc. Orange County lists it as a required document alongside energy calculations and Manuals J, S and D. We prepare it with the R405 so the values match the submitted plans and specifications.

Price

$195Energy calc · from

$445Full package

$595Sealed

2–3Business days

One statewide price in all 67 counties. Building departments decide what they accept; we don’t guarantee approval. Revisions for plan-review comments on the same design are free.

Start your order Plans in, price shown before you pay

NearbyOsceola County Lake County Brevard County East Central counties

Guides2026 Florida energy code Form R405 vs R402 Manual J, S & D for Florida permits

Sources

10 primary references · numbered to match the citations

01Orange County, One-Stop Permitting Servicesocfl.net
022023 Florida Building Code, Energy Conservation (8th Ed.), Table R301.1, climate zones by countyup.codes
03RESNET / ENERGY STAR, Appendix A: HVAC Design Temperature Limits by State and County (v4, 2019). 1% cooling and 99% heating values drawn from the ASHRAE 2013 Handbook of Fundamentals and ACCA Manual J 8th Ed.resnet.us
04Orange County Division of Building Safety, Residential Building Code Plan Review Checklist (PDF)ocfl.net
05City of Winter Park, Building & Permitting Servicescityofwinterpark.org
06City of Apopka, Permittingapopkafire.com
07OUC, Heat Pump A/C Rebateouc.com
08Duke Energy Florida, Rebate for HVAC Replacementduke-energy.com
09U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2024 1-year estimates (B25018, B25024, B25034, B25035, B25003, B25040), via Census Reportercensusreporter.org
10Florida Building Commission, R405-2026 documentation checklist example (quotes R403.7.1.1 cooling equipment sizing limits)floridabuilding.org